April 20, 2023

Yesterday, 4/19, was our 8th bargaining session with WSU Admin. Any proposals mentioned in the summary below will be linked on the WSU-CASE website.

Overview of our bargaining session (TL;DR):

  • We presented new proposals on a Union-Management Committee and Retirement Benefits
  • WSU presented counterproposals on Health & Safety. We discussed  and Grievance & Arbitration
  • We TA’d two articles: Training and Union-Management Committee!
  • We presented a scheduling proposal to get summer bargaining dates on our calendar. We asked Admin to respond by Monday.
  • RSVP for Equity Day (1pm 4/24 during bargaining)!
  • Monthly Meeting at 5PM this Friday (4/21)! 
Updates from the bargaining session:
  • Yesterday morning, we got very late notice that several administrators from Pullman Parking & Transit were ready to speak with us during the bargaining session. We have asked for further availability from these administrators, so that we can schedule this Q&A session further in advance, and allow more ASEs an opportunity to tune in and be a part of this conversation.
  • We also asked for follow up on proposals that Admin are still working on, including Holidays, Appointment Notifications, & Layoffs. Admin say they are holding off on some of these proposals until they hear more about the economic needs in our contract.
  • We asked about the status of our Request for Information (RFI). Admin claim to be working on it, however, they are already three weeks past the established deadline. The information we asked for is critical to making well-informed proposals & we will continue to follow up!
  • Admin presented a counterproposal on Health and Safety which we are in the process of reviewing. 

Although we’ve come closer on Grievance and Arbitration, there are still a few major differences. Admin insist that ASEs need to start the grievance procedure by talking to their direct supervisors, even in cases when their supervisors are the subject of the grievance. Further, Admin reasserted that they don’t think we should be able to enforce issues related to harassment and discrimination through our contract if they can go through Title IX. 

We hinted that we are planning to address their concerns related to Title IX on our last bargaining session of the semester on this upcoming Monday. Starting at 1PM on Monday (4/24), we will be presenting equity-related proposals on topics including Immigration/International Student Protections, Anti-discrimination, Anti-bullying, Accomodations, Respectful Workplace, and more! These will be interspersed with testimony from ASEs. RSVP for Equity Day here! We will be reviewing Equity Day proposals and preparing for day-of plans at our Monthly Meeting at 5PM on Friday as well. RSVP for the Monthly Meeting here.

If you’d like to participate in the process or would like to be a part of any of the proposal development mentioned above (or anything that hasn’t been mentioned yet), please consider joining a workgroup! If there is a topic important to you that you don’t see a workgroup for yet, send an email to contact@wsucase.org to share your ideas on how you can contribute.

In Solidarity,
WSU-CASE Bargaining Committee:
Acacia Patterson, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Adam Bozman, Carson College of Business – Finance (Pullman)
Andre Diehl, Comparative Ethnic Studies (Pullman)
Arianna Gonzales, Psychology (Pullman)
Aurora Brinkman, Psychology (Pullman)
Chelsea Mitchell, School of the Environment (Puyallup Research and Extension Center)
Chia-Hui Chen, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Claudia Skinner, School of Languages, Cultures, and Race (Pullman)
Cody Lauritsen, College of Veterinary Medicine (Pullman)
Coty Jasper, Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience (Vancouver)
Dano Holt, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Evan Domsic, Crop and Soil Science (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Gavin Doyle, English (Pullman)
Hannah Cohen, Veterinary Clinical Sciences (Pullman)
Kartik Sreedhar, Physics & Astronomy (Pullman)
Kayla Spawton, Plant Pathology (Mount Vernon NWREC)
Kelsey King, School of Biological Sciences (Vancouver)
Miles Hopkins, School of the Environment (Pullman)
Miranda Zuniga-Kennedy, Clinical Psychology (Pullman)
Naseeha Cardwell, Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering (Pullman/Tri-Cities)
Natalie Yaw, Chemistry (Pullman)
Ninh Khuu, Plant Pathology (Prosser)
Peter Obi, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Raymond Bennett, Psychology (Pullman)
Rebecca Evans, Biology (Vancouver)
Shawn Domgaard, Communication (Pullman)
Tazin Rahman, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (Pullman)
Tholen Justin Blasko, Animal Sciences (Pullman)
Victor Moore, History (Pullman)
Victoria Oyanna, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Spokane)
Whitney Shervey, Sociology (Pullman)
Yiran Guo, Mechanical and Materials Engineering (Pullman)